Many Eastern traditions see consciousness to be an a-priori essence from which material reality has sprung while panpsychists see consciousness as an intrinsic attribute of nature. In the introduction to this book I suggested rather that emergence be seen as the intrinsic attribute of nature by which consciousness arises, such that the consciousness of the Cosmic Deity is seen as an emergent phenomenon rather than the ground of its being. Before concluding I would like to take a stab at what I think might be such an a-priori essence to nature or ground to our being.

I think meaning per se might be such a ground of being, and that it is a compulsion to meaning that sources and powers our reality. I see life and consciousness emerging as elaborate efflorescences of meaning. What do I mean by meaning? The fact that things can make sense. That things are capable of relationship. That 1+1=2. That logic is possible. That patterns exist. That any sort of order is possible. That games can be played. That objects interact according to rules. That there can be such things as harmony and beauty. That we share an objective reality. Einstein hit the nail on the head when he said something like "The most incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it is comprehensible." Meaning may well be what is responsible for the order underlying mathematics and physics.

I see meaning to be accompanied by a drive to ever greater expression, to its ongoing extension and embellishment. Intellect, sex, beauty, music and language, even love, all these higher expressions, are consequences of a drive towards greater manifestations of meaning. Our cosmos and everything in it is fruit in a "garden of meaning", in which stand trees, among others, of knowledge and life. The urge to greater meaning not only facilitates the emergence of new fields of meaning but the fruits of this emergence are manufacturing an ever more elaborate reality as it goes.

Consciousness (in all of its forms), as the comprehension of meaning, is meaning's consummate complement. Consciousness could well be the perfect home for a drive to greater meaning.

I'll stick my neck out even further: Quantum physics tells us that multiple outcomes are possible for any quantum event. Which outcome will be actualized - the one that the event 'collapses' to - is understood to be random. In the light of a drive towards greater expressions of meaning, one (and probably more) of these possible outcomes will be contextually meaningful, that is, coherent with - capable of relating with in some meaningful way - the outcomes of all other quantum events in its environment, thereby allowing a higher level of meaning to emerge, in this case a 'macro' level different to the 'quantum' level. It is always one of these contextually coherent outcomes that actualizes in the collapse, ensuring that the outcomes of all quantum events are macroscopically able to relate with each other on macroscopic terms, and so with the entire macro universe. Not all the quantum possibilities could actualize in ways that are macroscopically meaningful, only some, and the drive towards meaning ensures that it is one of these that will actualize (possibly the one with greatest potential for spawning even more levels of meaning). 'Meaningful' does not rule out 'random', only that the outcome makes sense.

Here we have another example of emergence in action, not only because a higher macro level of meaning emerges from the lower quantum level, but because the higher macro level has a semantic priority over the lower quantum level (as we have seen in the organization of serial meaning in lower levels of an architecture by its emergent higher levels). Since only architective emergence offers higher levels a semantic priority over lower levels, the emergence of the macro level from the quantum level involves - and possibly introduces - an element of architectivity.

A drive towards greater meaning could even underlie the phenomenon of emergence itself - in all its expressions - in that emergent phenomena will always be meaningful in the context of other phenomena emerging at that level.

So an a-priori compulsion towards meaning results not only in a sensible world but a flourishing thereof. As new fields of meaning emerge, some are more fruitful than others. The evolution of biological gender, for example, has given rise to particularly rich expressions of emotional and social meaning. More so, I see desire, and passionate desire at that, to be intrinsic to reality in the way many others see beauty, goodness and truth to be intrinsic to reality. When it is able, meaning not only drives towards greater elaboration but does so with passion. We see this for example in orgasmic sexuality, in intellectual fulfilment, in music, and in the explosive fecundity of life. We see it spiritually in the Cosmic Deity's passionate enjoyment of profundity and our Planetary Deity's passionate pursuit of drama. The universe isn't just flowing, processing, flowering and comprehending, it's doing so with ardour!

Previous Home NEXT